HCLS To Host Webinar About The Role Of Racism In Healthcare

ELLICOTT CITY, MD —The Howard County Library System has announced it will be hosting a live webinar on July 13 about the role racism plays in preventing the U.S. from achieving equity in healthcare.

The one-hour event, which will begin at 7 p.m., is titled "Achieving Health Equity: Tools for Naming Racism and Moving to Action." The featured speaker will be Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, a family physician and epidemiologist, who currently is the Presidential Visiting Fellow at Yale School of Medicine.

According to a release, Jones' work focuses on naming, measuring and addressing the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of the nation and the world.

Though racism remains a major roadblock to achieving health equity in the country, Jones has said many people deny it continues to exist or are ill-equipped to even say the word "racism", let alone take action to address the problem.

To understand the issue, Jones said it is important to first acknowledge that racism exists, racism is a system, racism saps strength from the whole society and that we can act to dismantle racism.

After acknowledging these truths, Jones has said addressing the problem requires: treating individuals and populations equally, recognizing and rectifying historical injustices and providing resources according to need.

After her talk, Jones will be available for a Q & A.

Jones will serve as the 2021-22 UCSF Presidential Chair at the University of California San Francisco, and she was the 2019-2020 Evelyn Green Davis Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

After serving as an assistant professor at Harvard's School of Public Health from 1994 to 2000, Jones spent 14 years as a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This event will be sponsored by the Horizon Foundation. Those interested in attending virtually can register an email address in order to receive a confirmation with a link to join the webinar. The email also will contain dial-in information for those interested in participating via telephone.

Those interested in closed captions for the event should contact askhcls@hclibrary.org.